Gardener gift: 'all you can dig up'

Updated: August 26, 2008 - 1:08 PM

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Lilies in Debbie Savage's garden

Photo: Debbie Savage,

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Debbie Savage of Paynesville, Minn., started her garden in the usual way, with a few shrubs around the house. But when a friend who was moving offered Savage all the plants she could dig up, Savage got into gardening in a big way.

Now her 6 1/2-acre lot boasts a Monet garden (with pastel flowers from springtime tulips to late-summer dahlias), a salsa garden (with bold, hot-colored tulips, lilies, marigolds and mums), a perennial garden, a rock garden and a shade garden.

And she's not done. She's been reading up on rain gardens and hopes, with the help of her husband, to build one soon.

Savage admits that taking care of so many gardens can be overwhelming at times. And she's no fan of "grunt work," such as moving shrubs. But she's become a gardener's gardener.

"I really love gardening," she said. "In spring, I get all excited to go to the nurseries," she said. "I suppose that's how some people feel about shopping."

CONNIE NELSON

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